Labor's shadow health minister, Julia Gillard, today denied
allegations that she was sent to rescue South Australian Labor MP
Kate Ellis from the attentions of former party leader Mark Latham
at a Canberra night spot.

"It was completely untrue," Ms Gillard said this morning after
delivering a speech about women in politics at a conference at
Darling Harbour.

"Nothing happened on the night," Ms Gillard said. "I came out of
a restaurant which was upstairs. Mark was having a mineral water
and we walked towards the car together, as we had come out of the
restaurant at the same time. . . It was all a complete work of
fiction."

Ms Ellis and Mr Latham have both denied reports that he sexually
harassed her.

Details of the rumour, which Mr Latham said almost made him to
quit as Labor leader in December, are revealed in Mr Latham's
diaries, to be released next week.

Ms Gillard said she "struggled" to describe her reaction to Mr
Latham's book.

"I struggled over night and very early this morning to put down
in words my reaction to Mark's diaries and to what it means for
Federal Labor. It isn't easy to capture in a full short
sentence.

"I do not believe that Mark Latham should have published these
diaries in this form. I suspect that when we see the full book it
will describe some major issues that need to be addressed about
Labor's policies, about its culture, about Australia's political
culture generally and about the way the media works.

"I expect the truth in this book will be ignored because the
focus will be on the spleen, not the substance, and I think that is
a great pity.

Ms Gillard threw her support behind Mr Beazley.

"I thank Mark for his support of me, but as I have made very
clear, I stand 100 per cent behind Kim Beazley.

"Here is a man [Mr Beazley] with a noted public reputation for
decency. Australians generally have a very jaundiced view of
politicians, but they do not have a jaundiced view of Kim
Beazley.

"They believe in his essential decency. In January this year I
described Kim Beazley as a big man with a big heart who has a big
vision for this big country of ours. Everyday as Labor leader he
shows those characteristics, including and most particularly
yesterday."

Ms Gillard criticised the media for the way the story has been
covered.

"The media is loving the feeding frenzy over Mark Latham's
diaries indeed they are loving it so much they are fighting over
it, fighting over it in court."

AAP reports:

Ms Gillard said she considered standing for the party's
leadership after Mr Latham's resignation in January this year.

But she said Mr Beazley was the current leader and he had had
her full support, she said.

"I obviously considered standing for Labor leadership in January
this year," she told reporters.

"I do not believe in destabilising Labor leaders, we have a
Labor leader.

"We have Kim Beazley.

"My ultimate aim is that he is leader at the next election and
he's prime minister for a very long period of time.

6040http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/latham-never-harrassed-me-ellis/2005/09/16/1126750106601.htmlLatham never harrassed me: Ellistext/html-documenthttp://www.smh.com.au/news/national/latham-dump-kim-back-julia/2005/09/15/1126750082567.htmlLatham: dump Kim, back Juliatext/html-documenthttp://www.smh.com.au/news/national/marks-golden-exclusive-unravels-into-a-freeforall/2005/09/15/1126750082614.htmlMark's golden exclusive unravels into a free-for-alltext/html-documenthttp://www.smh.com.au/news/national/attacks-can-forge-unity/2005/09/15/1126750082608.htmlAttacks can forge unitytext/html-documenthttp://www.smh.com.au/news/national/faith-hope-and-charity-can-be-poisonous-too/2005/09/15/1126750082611.htmlFaith, hope and charity can be poisonous, tootext/html-documenthttp://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/biggest-loser-in-brawl-will-be-latham/2005/09/15/1126750072711.htmlBiggest loser in brawl will be Lathamtext/html-externalhttp://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/biggest-loser-in-brawl-will-be-latham/2005/09/15/1126750072711.htmlBiggest loser in brawl will be Lathamtext/html-externalhttp://media.fairfax.com.au/?rid=16803<i>Enough Rope</i> excerptsvideo/standard